Waaah! Good News Is Like A Brick Wrapped In Too Many Marshmallows.

Ignatz and Brick and KatPOW! So, I got a nice surprise to-day in the form of temporary freelance gig doing something many people despise but I find really relaxing. “What could it be, what could it be!”, the mob, they cry out – they want a decree. But I cannot say, for it’s not yet quite set. So I’ll ruin it not (well, not just quite yet)…

More on this breaking noose once some logistics are worked out. But if things go well (and it looks as if they should indeed), I’ll be making a little extra money and maybe getting some stuff taken care of (BRAAAAAAWWWNNNNN!) that I need to get done but haven’t because I’m just that broke. One step at a time, watch out for puddles and that’s a hell of a lot of marshmallows on that brick I got hit with. If you guess what the gig is, you don’t get a prize at all – you’re just faster on the draw than some other readers, is all.

No animals were harmed during the making of this post. Don’t throw real bricks at cats or try to get a mouse to do so. If you DO, however, post it on YouTube and make sure you disable comments or have a VERY thick skin. In theory, the mouse will get a hernia from lifting the brick, the cat will eat the mouse and the brick the mouse was lifting will hit the cat on the head. Maybe. Oh yeah, wrapping a brick in marshmallows? Bad idea unless you want an ant farm in your home. That and you’d go broke buying bag after bag of them… unless you made your own marshmallows. Or even better, marshmallow Bricks (which are very terribly NON-aerodynamic)…

Digital Dilemma Day (or Slow As S#!t Is the New Black)…

(thanks, upwithgravity!) 

Bleh. One thing that cracks me the hell up is reading industry sites and speaking with some folks in the tech sector who (very) blindly and (all too) cheerfully think ALL is nothing but well when it comes to the US and the rest of the civilized world having the best and speediest internet connections so we can all happily buy those new toys and get content with the same lightning speed wherever we go. Well, Crom laughs at your four winds, digital gurus. I say the bulk of these wealthy innovators have NEVER used local wi-fi, been stuck with a dial-up connection or had any major problem they couldn’t buy their way out of by tossing that old device in the trash and buying a new one or having an employee come up with a free fix (or come up with one themselves).

I’m also betting that if some of these SUPER geniuses were to step away from their hi-tech caves they’d see the rest of us poor peons not only have crappy connections, they’re slower than Kraftwerk playing their paradoxically languid classic pop song about that famous highway with no speed limit. Granted, it’s a great and memorable tune, but some of you folks may find it supremely soporific if you were expecting something along the Blurred Lines…

(thanks, Ras Putin!) 

Okay, now… hey, you in the back… WAKE UP! That’s better (I know I should have used the shorter single edit!)… Continue reading

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Poster (Or, It’s Not Winter In April, You Know!)

captain_america_the_winter_soldier_ver2_xlg

Ah ha ha, but that’s what I immediately thought when I saw that 4.4.14 release date. Ah, Hollywood… trying so hard to be clever when I’m all that much funnier than you are. Oh, you’ll learn one day, I suppose. Well, I guess releasing this in the winter might be a bad idea, as one can’t go to the cinema with eight feet of snow on the ground. On the other hand, even if they did release it and there was no snow on the ground, I currently have NO movie theater around here to go to (bough-hough!) until that nasty asbestos issue is taken care of. Hmmmm. maybe I can find someone to sue for that problem, although I haven’t been to that particular theater in ages and I’m not one for randomly suing people or getting caught up in a class action suit. Besides, I’d probably win popcorn and soda for life (which, given that’s in either these days means that “life” would be cut short by salt, fat, artificial flavors and colors galore. Yum!)…

Random Film of the Week: The Defiant Ones

the defiant onesAlthough he doesn’t appear until about 45 minutes into the film and has about seven minutes or so of screen time total, Lon Chaney Jr. plays a pivotal role in The Defiant Ones. As Big Sam, a burly, weathered old soul who saves the escaped duo from a lynching, he delivers a powerful speech against killing the men and beats down one of the angry mob before asking anyone else to step up and try their hand at murder. Given that the guy he slugged went down like a stone wall hit by a wrecking ball, no one decides to test their luck afterwards.

Later on, he cuts the pair loose before brusquely sending them away still chained from the small waterside shack town they’d stumbled across. It’s not until the last moments the three men are together that you realize why Sam isn’t keen on seeing the men harmed (at least by his people)… a flash of his badly scarred wrist reveals he used to be a former chain gang convict. He doesn’t know or care what they’ve done to be chained to each other, but he’s giving them a better chance at survival than anyone else would have… Continue reading

Stuff I Sometimes Think About When Not Much Is Working Right…

Not YOU, Arnold… we’re not related, thankfully. But I’d trade you a bag of brown rice for some of those muscles just so I could beat my head in on occasions such as this. I actually lost a chunk of a nice post earlier today thanks to making that silly issue of having a few in progress on WP and my laptop dying before I saved or the auto-save kicked in. It’s no trouble to rewrite stuff, but I hate having to redo posts because they always come out differently if I’m doing them on the fly and not working from notes. Anyway, between that and me generally being a wee bit too busy to keep up with my inbox today, I’m throwing this up as a diversion while I get my brain synched to do some rewriting. Ready? No? Oh well…

Has any D.J. opened or closed a set with this tune?

Just asking, folks… Continue reading

Who Knew I Was “Popular”? The Versatile Blogger Award STRIKES!

(thanks, gzibeuh!) 

The Versatile Blogger AwardAs I noted previously…(look up and press “play”) yeah, thanks, Sally! Any-whooo… so, not one, but TWO folks in the space of as many days has decided to make me grin like Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs by nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Eeeeeee! Of course, this means I need to thank a few people and come up with a bunch of other deserving folks who might like their own days dazzled (or that daze dazzled) by a nomination. Or TWO nominations, actually. Lex Luther over at Sublime Zoo and Lady Fangtasia need to get thanks and a BIG hearty hand clasp:

(thanks, Kevinator9!)

For thinking on little old me! But a little additional housekeeping is required here before I retire to the Champagne Room for a snack. Wait, I have a Champagne Room? I must still be asleep! Oh well… er, moving onward… Continue reading

Um, Hey Arnold? What’s My Motivation For Today?

Really? Well… Oooo-kay. Although I have no enemies I can think of (they’ve been well taken care of) and any wimmen lamenting over and around me seem to be quite invisible. And I bathe regularly! Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Less distractions (and lesser hiding of assorted body parts) means more time to write stuff. Save for days when I’m feeling a bit low or loopy and need some words of encouragement. Hmmmm… I guess I need to go learn to ride a horse and swing a sword around. And yell a lot more than I normally do. Which is rarely unless I fall off a horse onto my sword (ouch) or keys (OUCH). Memo to self: don’t carry your keys when riding a horse. Get an enemy or their soon to be lamenting wimmen to hold then until I’m done with der crushing. Thanks, Arnold (I think)…

Good Housekeeping Needs To Be Better Housekeeping. We’re Workin’ On It…

BOOMOkay, Okay. So, I’ve been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award from two people this week. Eeeek! Now, “Who, me?” is my reaction to being noticed ever since I got caught with my hands in a cookie jar I had to climb up onto a counter using a ladder just to get to the cabinet it was in. Obviously, my mom didn’t have a walk in pantry way back then, but that’s probably a good thing, as we’d have all been scared straight to death when Big Fig popped out. Er, where was I (besides NOT being paid by Nabisco or whomever owns them for selling Fig Newtons in no fewer than three posts this month)?

Oh, yeah – I need to do up an official post thanking the folks who nominated me PLUS come up with fifteen other bloggers to nominate and some other stuff. All of that WILL be done as soon as I get to a better connection. I’m poking this post up using a dial-up (whee!), which is amusingly enough how I posted a few thousand other entries on this site (so I guess I’m Versatile after all, if not persistent and insane). However, hitting the library tomorrow for that speedy wi-fi will allow me to poke around my links and hit up those other folks I want to nominate a lot faster in addition to giving me extra time to figure out seven interesting things about myself. Yeah, I keep my ego in the freezer, and the humble pies on the counter, kids. Anyway, back in a bit – I need to go dig up (cook) something. I kind of just woke up about two hours or so ago thanks to being up way too late again (too many games, as usual)…

Humor: And Now, Some Handy Advice From Arnold..

So, yeah… Schwarzenegger is BACK and was recently taking requests for his greatest quips from his fan base. Rather than run them all here like some sites, I’m going to dole out one a day or every other day based on whether or not I can come up with something amusing to say that fits the quote. Of course, this first clip makes me wonder if Arnold will take his own advice and get to his own choppa, given that blazing inferno in the background. On the other hand, he may have set that fire just for effect or is having a damn huge backyard cookout and shot that video while waiting for those steaks he just turned over to get done. And if you have to ask what a “choppa” is… just don’t ask anyone at all. Silently rent 1987’s Predator and watch it when no one’s looking so you can be more up to date on this sort of thing. Yeah, there will be a quiz later (and probably given by Arnold himself, what with the fan service he’s been doing lately)…

WIN Free Stuff! Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut – Ultimate Edition GET!

DPTDC_UE_PSNSOME of you readers are smart. REALLY smart. And fast, too. As in less than five minutes after I posted that I was planning give away PSN codes for Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut – Ultimate Edition, I got two requests. Smart people get PAID. Well, in free game codes that is. Ask me for money and you’ll get a big hoot of a laugh and a hearty handclasp for your troubles.

That said, I now have ONE code left, so if you have a US PSN account (this code is ONLY VALID IN THE US!) and a PlayStation 3 (of course), well… let’s keep it simple. First one to post a reply below with a valid email address gets it. I’d just post the code and let you all have at it, but that’s always sucky if someone grabs the code first planning to redeem it later and finds out it’s been used.

Anyway, if you’re STILL reading this, stop and post a response! You MUST be interested if you’ve read THIS far, right?